in tempo
by Ten-Faced
Summary: and with a one, two, three, four, let's take our steps down memory lane, swing in the present, and waltz to the future. Toichi/Chikage


There's barely any stories of them together. That's my reasoning, and I'm sticking to it. I own nothing.

EDIT:(16/02/2013) Thank you, mountainelements, for the critique!

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**1.**

When the doctor tried to stop him from going into the room where his wife was giving birth in Toichi set off a few smoke bombs, picked the lock, got in, handcuffed himself to the heaviest equipment there, and threw the key outside the window.

"Next time, just _tell_ us that you're the husband, please."

**2.**

As soon as they landed on the ground, he was met with Jii and the furious designer of the white, flashy costume that was supposed to have been the tribute for the Gentleman Thief, Arsène Lupin. She would have liked to say that she defended him valiantly, but the truth was, she was too busy laughing.

**3.**

The first time he saw Phantom Lady, he was just a spectator in the crowds who knew exactly what to watch for. She was too good to actually risk her face being shown until her horror makeup was wiped off, but the split second glance he received of her profile was enough to keep him on her trail.

**4.**

Chikage received eternal loyalty from Jii when she commented positively on his devotion to Toichi. She also received his pictures from his younger days, a priceless treasure.

**5.**

Toichi made Chikage swear to everything important to her that she'd never tell anyone about how he was scared of watching her favorite horror movies.

**6.**

It was, in part, Toichi's fault that Kaito was so scared of fish. If it hadn't been for that one magic trick meant for her. . . well, she admitted that it was still fun to tease her son.

**7.**

His male disguises were great, but his female ones needed a lot of work. She gladly tutored him until he perfected it.

**8.**

Chikage gave most of Toichi's alibis – dressed up as someone who wasn't known as Chikage Kuroba. It was helpful being a master of disguise when one had an international criminal for a husband.

**9.**

"Oh, so your methods wouldn't use blood?"

"Why, yes. Mine would be a bit more. . . _magical_."

"Fine. Let's bet on something, shall we? Kaitou KID can never shed any blood in any of his heists intentionally to pull something off."

And that was the real reason why the first Kaitou KID never hurt anyone. Not that she was questioning Toichi's morality, of course.

**10.**

Chikage never told Kaito, but she never used any of the money Toichi had left after his death. Instead, she worked, invested, pulled a few strings and favors with people from both her pasts, and made enough to never touch that painful inheritance.

**11.**

"I bet," Chikage said one day to Toichi, when they were both bored and watching action movies. "That you can't get a car into the hideout like he did."

He did, drat it all.

**12.**

"I understand that you're just teaching them. . . But you cheat on me with the actress women, you lose parts of your body. Understood?"

"Crystal."

**13.**

She cried when she saw footage of Kaito's first night out as KID, because it was like Toichi was back from the dead, but as a phantom that she couldn't touch, and that hurt her so, so much.

**14.**

When a reporter crashed the funeral and began shooting questions to her on whether her deceased husband had been Kaitou KID or not, she burst into real tears.

**15.**

The last image he saw, even in the flames and the explosions that sent waves of searing pain across his body, was his wife's smiling face.

**16.**

The magazines speculated on whether Toichi Kuroba had his eyes out for Sharon Vineyard or Yukiko Kudo. Chikage used those magazines to start bonfires.

**17.**

Just how did one say that their first kiss together had been shared while hurtling from a tower with a motorcycle chained to their wrists in Paris?

**18.**

Toichi dedicated every show to her. The fan-girls seethed with jealousy when she blew him – and them, for childish spite – a kiss.

**19.**

"Oh, you have a lot to learn about stealing," Chikage pushed back her hair and then squealed as she was tackled by a loving magician.

The lesson was delayed several sessions.

**20.**

His wife complained about his love for analog, but she went along with it anyways.

**21.**

Kaito slipped outside to play with Aoko when his parents began to get all lovey-dovey. Yuck. _He'd_ never be like that.

**22.**

Her wedding ring wasn't on her ring finger to just discourage unwanted male attention – it was a memorial to the greatest magician and thief the world had ever seen.

**23.**

One of her treasures was a music box. When opened, two figurines in black danced slowly. When opened with a special key, Kaitou KID flew with Phantom Lady in his arms. It was kept empty.

**24.**

Jii covered his eyes, embarrassed by proxy when his master just grabbed the new mistress and kissed her before he was given permission to kiss the bride.

**25.**

She found out when she first went to his house that his jewelry box was empty, save two wedding bands.

_Hers_, on the other hand, he filled with everything her heart desired.

**26.**

As a mother, she should have forbidden Kaito from ever stepping on the path of KID. . . But as Toichi's widow, she rooted her son on.

**27.**

At their wedding, the bride came up to the waiting groom empty-handed. There was a bit of confusion until Toichi snapped his fingers and not only pulled out a huge bouquet from nowhere but made the ceiling rain with roses.

**28.**

When she met Yukiko Kudo, Chikage considered stalking her husband to make sure there were no romantic feelings with the beautiful woman. Only when reassured that the actress loved the novelist she was married to more than anything did she stop her plans for the unexpected death.

Now, what to do about Sharon Vineyard. . . .

**29.**

After a heist, a random man in the crowd grabbed her, leaned her back, and kissed her passionately. She nearly got him with her taser before she recognized the kisser. She still punched his gut.

That was the last time he kissed her in a disguise. He learned fast.

**30.**

At first, it was like withdrawal from drugs as she stopped Phantom Lady, but slowly, with him always at her side, she stepped away from her alter ego and bid her goodbye.

**31.**

Their first fight was about, strangely enough, fish. He had said something about her cooking, she had overreacted to that statement, and then burst into tears after some silly fighting match that lasted two minutes.

Then they found out that she was pregnant.

**32.**

Her wedding dress was black, his tuxedo white. When asked about it, both burst into hysterical laughter and avoided the question with smiles of mischief and whispers of secrets.

**33.**

He was never parting with his mustache, even if it got in the way of his disguises sometimes. His wife loved his mustache, especially when he was kissing her.

**34.**

"You know, you and that Yusaku Kudo kind of look similar to each other," Chikage commented. "You both have this mysterious, charming aura. . . ."

At the next heist, the novelist met unexpected annoyances in the forms of silly putty, water balloons and calls from his 'editors'. The last was more of a scare tactic, and one that worked rather well. It was like the thief was being petty for no reason except those that were personal.

**35.**

His favorite lesson, the importance of Poker Face, was one that he taught to her as well. She kept her Poker Face as the woman who was light-hearted, carefree, and childish after his death because the audience couldn't know that the Disney princess was actually the deep and heartbroken woman.

**36.**

Aoko liked her son. When Chikage found out, she encouraged it, even if she didn't want her son to lose a loved one, because her son deserved to at least know what that kind of love felt like.

**37.**

Toichi was a man of his word. He effectively made everyone forget Phantom Lady. At the same time, though, the new rising star in society, Chikage Kuroba, was quite characteristic.

**38.**

If the doctor had been able to understand French, he would have realized that the newly made parents were discussing the shape of their baby's hands and how they were perfect for both magic and stealing. As it was. . . .

**39.**

After his death, Chikage allowed herself three days of expressing her devastated states before she shut all her emotions up behind a Poker Face.

Then, she began to go around the world, visiting and revisiting all the places they had gone together.

**40.**

"Mom? Stop calling me KID Junior in public, please. People might get suspicious."

"Okay, KID Junior!"

". . ._mom_."

**41.**

Yusaku never told anyone when one day, KID just popped out of the shadows in the washroom at his favorite restaurant to ask him to sign a book of his and make it out to 'the Phantom Lady'.

He wasn't sure he wanted to know during the incident that he would never mention to anyone, but when he met the Kuroba family, he understood.

**42.**

It was silly, she knew, but she buried all the doves Toichi had ever handled next to his grave, save one spot that was reserved for her body.

**43.**

"Toichi! Stop using up all of my makeup!"

**44.**

"I have an older brother now."

"How old is he?"

"Around the same age as Kaito. Looks like him, too."

". . . I'm missing something here, aren't I?"

**45.**

"Apparently, I'm called 'KID' now."

Chikage raised an eyebrow. "KID?"

"Kaitou KID."

"Not as cool as 'Phantom Lady'."

"No, but you have to admit, that's a catchy name."

"You magicians and your love for catchy things. . . ."

**46.**

"I really, really like red," Toichi sighed when he saw his wife dressed in the evening gown for the party.

**47.**

No one knew just how close Phantom Lady was to returning after Toichi died. If it weren't for Kaito she would have definitely returned, and began to steal jewels.

**48.**

When Kaito handed her that cursed red jewel, Chikage smashed it without a second thought, hammering the powdered shards over and over until her son gently pried loose the tool from her and gave her a hug.

**49.**

Eating with him at the café, Chikage briefly wondered if it counted as a date, going out with someone you had just become engaged to.

**50.**

When a murder occurred while she, Toichi and the Kudos were out for dinner, Chikage found out that this was a pretty common occurrence for the actress and her husband.

"Have I ever told you how much I love the lack of excitement in our lives?"

Toichi raised an eyebrow, and she burst out into laughter, receiving strange looks from investigating officers.

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Written because it's my ff birthday, and because I also reviewed exactly 1234 times today. One day, number two shall be expanded into a fic of its own. . . .


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